Nine Titans

The Nine Titans was a group of planeswalkers who were assembled by Urza to aid him in the destruction of Phyrexia. Aided with the titan engines and soul bombs the Nine Titans hoped to destroy Phyrexia and end the Phyrexian Invasion.

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The early draft of the Nine Titans was slightly different from what we know as the Nine Titans. In the first draft of the Nine Titans Teferi and an insane planeswalker named Parcher were on the list.

However Teferi changed his mind and to spare his lands from the ravages of the invasion phased himself and the lands out of the timeline. He was replaced by Daria, Taysir’s stepdaughter whom he had demanded to be brought along.

Freyalise insisted that Kristina of the Woods should be brought along, apparently just to spite Taysir, and Urza agreed using her to replace Parcher whom he thought was too insane to go in the first place.

Urza had learned from his failed assault on Phyrexia, if the Nine Titans were to be successful in their assault they would need the tools to help them to do so. He designed and built the titan engines and soul bombs that the titans would use to destroy Phyrexia but knew they would have to be tested before the assault began.

With the engines ready the Nine Titans departed Tolaria to aid the Metathran and Weatherlight at Koilos. The battle was not going well when the titans arrived, the Metathran were losing two of their soldiers for every Phyrexian they killed, but with the help of the planeswalkers and their titan engines the tide of the battle quickly changed. The Metathran leaders infiltrated the caves in an attempt to destroy the portal to Phyrexia while Urza concentrated his full efforts on stopping the Phyrexian ground forces.

Koilos was under the Coalition’s control. Urza entered the cave when he found Gerrard and company surrounded by dead Phyrexians. The Phyrexian General Tsabo Tavoc had fled through the portal back to Phyrexia, Urza destroyed the portal effectively ending the first stage of the Phyrexian Invasion.

The peace would not last long, the day after the victory at Koilos the ground shuddered and shifted. Yawgmoth had launched the second stage of his invasion, millions of tons of flowstone were deposited on the shores of Dominaria with tens of billions of Phyrexians on top of it. The Rathi Overlay had at long last taken part causing fighting to spark across the globe.

With moments to react Urza and the eight planeswalkers teleported the troops at Koilos across the globe. The titans regrouped at Tolaria when they discovered that Barrin had destroyed the island, the Phyrexian invaders on the island, the Tolarians and himself with a massive spell.

Demoralized by the death of Barrin the Nine Titans planeswalked to Phyrexia where they arrived at the ancient city of Gamalgoth. With the help of their titan engines they were able to make quick work of the Phyrexians whom were stretched thin by the invasion. Urza planted a soul bomb at the heart of the city before they journeyed to the Second Sphere.

Upon the Second Sphere, Urza and his allies found their next target: massive ammo dumps the size of several Dominarian cities. By placing a soul bomb at the center of these dumps, Urza could destroy the entire Second Sphere and perhaps collapse the sphere above it at the same time. Using stealth rather than brute force, Bo Levar and Lord Windgrace maneuvered themselves through the ammo dump, but came upon one of Phyrexia’s greatest defender: a dreadnought. The beast was so powerful that the nine planeswalkers were completely taken by surprise.

In the confusion of the battle, Kristina of the White Woods was slain by Tevesh Szat, who swore on his life that her death was an unfortunate accident. However, Urza could never be fooled so easily. Szat was always a killer, and the other seven planeswalkers questioned Urza’s sanity in bringing him to Phyrexia. But if Urza’s history has shown us anything, it is that he is never without a plan.

The Third Sphere of Phyrexia was a maze of pipes and fittings. Urza dispatched Daria, Tevesh Szat, Freyalise, Lord Windgrace, Bo Levar, and Commodore Guff to secure soul bombs throughout the hellish maze. Urza and Taysir would stand guard over the titan engines while their controllers were away.

All the planeswalkers returned after a time stating their success in their missions. However, Daria was not present, and almost immediately Urza began to suspect treachery. Once again Tevesh Szat had taken the life of an immortal, and for these crimes he would pay most dear. Urza activated a kill rubric in Szat’s titan engine, which immediately took Szat’s life. Worse than this, it drained him of his life force, his very soul, and used these energies to power the soul bombs. Denied another powerful planeswalker Urza’s companions began to doubt their leader’s own sanity.

Urza and company bypassed the Fourth Sphere and proceeded directly to the Fifth, where a massive steam beast lay in wait. The six planeswalkers wasted little time in attacking, and were successful in destroying the beast without another casualty. During this time, Urza began to question the morality of destroying an entire world, as well as the immorality of Yawgmoth.

At the Sixth Sphere, disaster struck. Urza was attacked by pneumagogs, creatures that dwelt in the physical and spiritual realms simultaneously. The pneumagogs successfully convinced Urza of his error in attempting to thwart the will of Yawgmoth. At last, Urza realized the truth. For four thousand years, he had made war against his true master.

Urza had believed Yawgmoth was guilty because of his manipulation of the natural order of sentient beings and his attempt to conquer Dominaria. However, Urza was guilty of these same things in creating Gerrard and the Metathran and destroying the wondrous world he now found himself a part of.

Against Taysir’s warnings, Urza destroyed the activation switch for the soul bombs and pledged his life to Yawgmoth’s service. Taysir believed Urza was under Yawgmoth’s control and promised that he would carry on his legacy by destroying Phyrexia himself. That was something Urza simply could not allow. Urza activated Taysir’s own kill rubric, taking the life of the millennia-old planeswalker.

The remaining titans mutinied against their leader before he planeswalked away. Bo Levar lead the titans in planting and activated their soul bombs. They returned to Dominaria only to find that Yawgmoth himself had taken to the battlefield.

Back on Dominaria the remaining titans parted ways. Bo Levar used his very essence to cast a spell to shield a school of merfolk from Yawgmoth in his death cloud form. He gave his life in appreciation of beauty, and his final thoughts were that it was a worthy death.

Commodore Guff was killed by Yawgmoth in his death cloud form in a matter of seconds after returning to Dominaria.

Freyalise returned to Skyshroud and sent an avatar of herself to Llanowar so she could stand with her followers as Yawgmoth approached. Freyalise survived the invasion and a year later held the memorial for Urza and Gerrard.

Lord Windgrace planeswalked minotaurs to Hurloon where they survived Yawgmoth's onslaught of Dominaria.